I am very interested in your work, what kind of experiments do you do on the bacteria also, how do you change the genes

Question: I am very interested in your work, what kind of experiments do you do on the bacteria also, how do you change the genes of the bacteria?
- Keywords:
  bacteria,
  gene,
  research
Asked by simpleamoeba to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 14 Mar 2012.
- Laura Waters answered on 14 Mar 2012:
  
  Not one for me but I’d like to know the answer.
- Lena Ciric answered on 14 Mar 2012:
  
  Hi Amoeba! Sorry it’s taken me a while to answer your question. There are lots to answer.
  
  What I do is grow some bacteria and see how much antibiotic they can tolerate. The ones that can tolerate a lot are likely to have genes for resistance. I then take the DNA out of these bacteria and investigate what sort of genes provide them with resistance. I can then remove these genes (it’s a lot like cutting and pasting) using special enzymes – these new bacteria are mutants. I then grow these mutated bacteria to see if they still have the same tolerance for antibiotics.

Question: I am very interested in your work, what kind of experiments do you do on the bacteria also, how do you change the genes of the bacteria?